Tang Yanfei's tomb with a fresco of a veiled maid, zhaoling museum collection. In 1990, the tomb chamber of Tang Taizong's concubine Yan Shi was cleaned out, and in the tomb murals, the drapery hat held by the palace maid was hung with a circle of long silk tassels, forming a thin curtain, which had a certain health protection function.
Sleeping Tiger Land Qin Jian, Hubei Provincial Museum Collection, excavated in 1975 Yunmeng Sleeping Tiger Di Tomb No. 11. Zhu Jian records that if someone is found to be infected with the plague, they must take the initiative to keep a distance and report to the government at the first time, and once the patient is officially diagnosed, he will be forcibly isolated and locked up in a special place, called "furuncle relocation".
Western Han Dynasty gilt silver riding beast figure Boshan Furnace, Hebei Museum collection. In 1968, the excavation of han tomb No. 2 in Lingshan, Mancheng, Hebei Province, was excavated. In the Western Han Dynasty, people loved to burn incense and smoke to drive away plague and prevent epidemics, and to maintain health and dispel diseases.
Ming Jiajing's twenty-ninth year of Chongguang supplemented the Yellow Emperor's Inner Scriptures in twenty-four volumes, collected by the Gansu Provincial Library. The Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic proposes that the plague should be detected and treated early, and recurrence should be prevented after treatment.
Silk fabrics of masks in the Qing Dynasty, collected by The Luntai County Museum in Xinjiang.
Dunhuang Mogao Caves Mural - Throwing Elephants: In order to prevent the plague, Prince Siddhartha lifted the dead elephant and threw it outside the city.
Regarding the plague, ancient Chinese books have long documented it. Zhou Li Tianguan Tsukasa: "The disease doctor is in charge of the diseases of all the people, and there are boils at all four times." The "Lü's Spring and Autumn And Season Spring Chronicle" records: "When the spring of the season is summer, the people are sick and sick. "It shows that the ancient understanding of plague has reached a certain level, believing that plague can occur all year round."
For thousands of years, the fight against the plague has been uninterrupted. Isolating the source of infection, administering effective drugs, maintaining environmental hygiene, wearing masks, etc. are effective measures for epidemic prevention and control summarized by generations, and can be reflected in cultural relics. It can be said that these cultural relics witnessed the history of epidemic prevention of the ancients, carrying the ideological essence and moral essence of the ancestors' epidemic prevention and treatment, and still have positive reference significance for today.
"Empty Mansion", compulsory quarantine
Isolation is the most effective and basic means to stop the spread of the epidemic. The Qin Dynasty established an epidemic reporting system, according to the "Sleeping Tiger Di Qin Tomb Bamboo Jane" unearthed in 1975: "Wu Bing, a person in a certain li canon, told him: 'Suspected boils.'" Come on. 'At the age of three, he was sick with a boil, an eyebrow protrusion, unknowable, and he could be sick, and he could sit without it.' 'Let the doctor diagnose it.' That is to say, if there is a suspected case of infectious disease in the township, DianJia (Dianjia, equivalent to the current township mayor) has the responsibility to investigate and report it quickly. According to the epidemic situation, the imperial court sent doctors to examine and treat them, and the three-year-old child could not be ignored, and quarantine measures were taken for relevant personnel.
In the "Sleeping Tiger Di Qin Jian Legal Q&A", the word "furuncle" appears for the first time. The "furuncle" is the quarantine area. The "Sleeping Tiger Di Qin Jian Poison Words" also records that insiders and family members should take the initiative to cut off contact with the "poison talkers", do not eat with the patient, and do not use the same utensils.
In the Han Dynasty, isolation and treatment were more perfect, "Book of Han, Pingdi Ji": "In the second year of the first year of the Yuan Dynasty, there were drought locusts, people with diseases, and they were given up in the empty mansion, for medicine." "During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, it became a system. During the Xiao Qi period, Crown Prince Changmao and others set up a special patient isolation institution, the Six Diseases Hall, to isolate and treat the sick. During the Prosperous Tang Dynasty, government-run medical institutions were more developed, the imperial court set up nursing workshops, and similar institutions were also set up in various state capitals, responsible for medical management and disease diagnosis and treatment in various places, and when a large epidemic occurred, it also undertook temporary shelter and isolation and treatment tasks. The Song Dynasty's General's Hospital, the Yuan Dynasty's Guanghui Division, and the Ming Dynasty's Huimin Pharmacy were all government-run medical institutions that undertook isolation treatment.
Once there is a dead person, the body is the main source of infection, what should be done? According to the Zhou Li, from the pre-Qin period onwards, there was a practice of disposing of ownerless corpses. Since then, in the event of a major epidemic, the government has generally buried the bodies of the deceased to prevent the spread of the disease.
"Boiled hot sip", drug treatment
In the face of the epidemic, medicines are essential.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Zhongjing wrote a book entitled "On Typhoid Fever and Miscellaneous Diseases", which contained 113 squares. The book had a profound impact on the development of later generations of phacology, such as the principles of drug compatibility and addition and subtraction changes. Many of these well-known prescriptions still play a huge role in modern health care, such as: white tiger soup for the treatment of Japanese encephalitis, ephedra almond plaster licorice soup for the treatment of pneumonia, rhubarb peony skin soup for the treatment of acute and chronic appendicitis, Wumei pill for the treatment of biliary roundworms, baptus soup for the treatment of dysentery, Artemisia annua soup for the treatment of acute jaundice hepatitis, hot licorice soup for the treatment of arrhythmia, and white liquor soup for the treatment of coronary heart disease angina, etc., are all commonly used in clinical practice.
The Eastern Jin Dynasty Ge Hong's "Elbow Reserve Emergency Fang" believes: "Typhoid fever, shixing, and warm epidemic, three are the same." ...... In his years, there was a furuncle and a ghost poison, called Wen Disease. The chapter "Cure the Plague Plague and The Warm Poison" in the book records the prescriptions for treatment and prevention such as the dry dispersion of the plague medicine, the dispersion of the laojun god, the dispersion of the degree of miasma, and the dispersion of the temperature and disease.
Sun Simiao, a famous doctor of the Tang Dynasty, not only summarized many prescriptions for the treatment of infectious diseases in the "Thousand Golden Recipes", but also proposed disinfection methods such as air disinfection by fumigation method and putting drugs into wells to disinfect water.
In addition to the prescriptions contained in medical books, there are many prescriptions and folk remedies scattered in history books, anthologies, and notes.
Su Shi mentioned in the "Book with Wang Minzhong" that the treatment of miasma is: "Use ginger, green onion, and soy sauce, boil it hot, and there is no effect." "Song Shi Foreign Tubo" mentions that in the third year of the Northern Song Dynasty Jingde (1006), the Duodu tribe of Liugu Tubo had an epidemic, and the anti-epidemic drugs provided by the Song court were white dragon brain, rhino horn, sulfur, benzoin, white quartz and so on. An example recorded in Shen Kuo's "Mengxi Pen Talk" is that the anti-epidemic drug used is Baiye. The anti-epidemic prescription recorded in the "Jing Kang Jiwen" is black bean soup, the formula of which is: "Black bean two money (to make stir-fried fragrant), two inches of licorice (fried yellow), two flavors with water two frying a lamp, always take it to heal itself." "In the Yuanren's notebook "Record of Quitting Farming", it is recorded that in the early years of the Yuan Dynasty, the Yuan army had an epidemic and was treated with rhubarb, and nearly 10,000 people lived.
"Sprinkle the fire", environmental purification
Maintaining environmental hygiene is essential for epidemic prevention. In the Yin Shang Oracle, there is a record of "Kou Sweep" (Great Sweep). The Book of Rites, the Maxim of Governing the Family, and the Book of The Book of The Secrets of the Zhou Dynasty all emphasize the habit of keeping the room clean and hygienic, and at the same time point out that a clean house can reduce the occurrence of diseases.
One of the traditional methods of epidemic prevention in ancient China is fumigation and steaming. The "Zhou Li Qiu Guan" records the use of mangcao, jiacao and other methods of burning and smoking to drive away clams and prevent diseases: "Where the clams are expelled, they are ordered", "remove the poisonous cup, attack them with the chi grass", "remove the beetles, smoke them with the mangcao, and all the things that are cunning". According to the excavated bamboo jane, we can see that during the Qin Dynasty, all the cars and harnesses that entered the city had to be disinfected and smoked by fire to prevent the epidemic.
In the Dunhuang Grottoes, there is a "Yin people sprinkling fire and burning epidemic prevention map", which describes the scene of killing insects and preventing epidemics by means of fire and smoke in the Yin Shang era. The Two Han Dynasties were the period with the most records of plagues in ancient times, and the "Naturalist Chronicle" specifically mentioned that there was a great epidemic in Chang'an, and all the diseases in the palace were diseases, and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty burned a tribute pill of the weak water Western Kingdom to "dispel the epidemic qi", "Chang'an Zhongbaili salty smelled the aroma, fang accumulated for more than nine days, and the incense did not stop." The Treatise on Typhoid Fever and Miscellaneous Diseases discusses in detail the various treatment methods of various infectious diseases at different times, and incense is one of the anti-resistance and auxiliary therapies.
Traditional Chinese medicine formulas with aromatic odors are used in order to prevent respiratory diseases and treat diseases. Therefore, in traditional Chinese culture, whether it is the court or the lives of the people, incense has become the most common and effective method of exorcising plague and epidemic prevention in various historical materials and medical classics.
Air disinfection prescriptions appeared in the Jin Dynasty. Ge Hong believes that by burning drugs, it is possible to prevent the epidemic. He first proposed the air disinfection method in the "Elbow Reserve Emergency Formula": "Using air disinfection drugs based on male yellow, female yellow, cinnabar, etc. to make a formula for preventing infectious diseases such as Taiyi Liu Jinfang and Tiger Head Killing Ghost Fang..." Subsequently, Sun Simiao of the Tang Dynasty inherited and developed this epidemic prevention method. In the Ming Dynasty, Li Shizhen often used steam disinfection. This method was also recorded in the Qing Dynasty, and Jia Shanting's "Xianfang Collection and Dispelling Plagues" said: "When the epidemic is transmitted during the Heavenly Journey, any family that suffers from the epidemic and steames the patient's clothes on the koshiki is not stained." ”
"Fear of touching people" and wearing a mask
Wearing a mask can block the invasion and infection of bacteria, viruses, dust and harmful gases, and it is simple and easy, which is an important material in epidemic prevention. In ancient times, in order to prevent dust and breath pollution, people in the court covered their mouths and noses with silk scarves, "covering their mouths and fearing that they would touch people." "Mencius Li Lou" recorded: "If Xizi is unclean, everyone covers their noses and passes by." "Covering your nose with your hands or sleeves is very unhygienic and inconvenient to do other things, and later someone used a piece of silk cloth to cover your mouth and nose.
In the 3rd and 8th centuries, a travel hat was popular, mainly used to cover the face and body to avoid passers-by peeping, and written records first appeared in the Jin Dynasty. It was worn by both men and women in the early days of the epidemic, but was mainly used by women during the Sui and Tang dynasties. In the Tang Dynasty, from the time of Wu Zetian, women began to use drapery hats when traveling. The hood is short and lightweight, as long as the neck, the face can also be slightly exposed, and the skirt of the hood is made of gauze and also has a sheer function. Their function is to shade the sun and sand, and they also have a certain hygienic protection effect.
Song Ci's "Collection of Washed Grievances" records that the nose was coated with sesame oil, or made into paper oil, and two nostrils were stuffed; small pieces of ginger were still placed in the mouth. In case of inspection, cut with a sharp mouth. Fear of filth rushing in. This is to say that the coroner must take appropriate protective measures during the autopsy, which is the same as the modern concept of medical mask protection.
Marco Polo wrote in the book "Marco Polo's Travels": "In the palace of the Yuan Dynasty, the people who offer food cover their mouths and noses with silk cloth, so that their breath cannot be touched, and they do not touch the food and drink." "This is the silk cloth that covers the nose and mouth, which is the original mask." Some people have examined that the cloth is not simple, it is woven with silk and gold thread.
The Ming Dynasty physician Wan Quan proposed in the "Book of Wan's Medicine" that the male yellow dot should be used to enter the nose to block the disease from the mouth and nose. It's not a mask, but awareness of respiratory contagion. In the plague of the late Ming Dynasty, Wu could also put forward the theory that miscellaneous qi (戾氣) caused illness in addition to the six fornications. He proposed that the gas entered the human body from the mouth and nose, providing an operational norm for plague prevention.
From 1910 to 1911, in the great plague in northeast China, Wu Liande, the plenipotentiary chief medical officer, insisted that this plague was not bubonic plague, but pneumonic plague, which could be transmitted by breath, and human-to-human transmission was the main channel. Therefore, he carried out large-scale isolation and epidemic prevention, and made it mandatory to wear masks. He wrapped two layers of gauze wrapped in a rectangular absorbent cotton and made a "Wu's mask", which has obvious epidemic prevention effect.
(The author is an associate research librarian of China Cultural Relics Exchange Center)